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BONA DEA was associated with virginity and fertility in women, and with healing in her temple garden with medicinal herbs. She was regarded with great reverence by lower-class citizens, slaves and women, who would invoke her powers for healing and for freedom from slavery. She was worshipped in a temple on the Aventine Hill, but her secret rites were performed in the home of a prominent Roman magistrate. The rites were held on December 4, and only included women. Even paintings or drawings of men or male animals were forbidden, along with the words "wine" and "myrtle" because she had once been beaten with a myrtle stick after she got drunk. The rites were conducted annually by the wife of the senior magistrate present in Rome and were assisted by the Vestal Virgins. Very little is known about the ceremony, but the worship seems to have been agricultural in origin.
BONA-DEA
